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If you watch a lot of sport you’ll have no doubt noticed that Darts is getting an awful lot of TV time. Whether it’s one of the world championships (are there two or more now, we’ve lost count?) or the currently in vogue Premier League (complete with tight-clothed models that get leered over as they walk in with the players), you can’t miss the sport. The games are clearly doing something right too, seeing as we just got the latest instalment, PDC World Championship Darts 2009, through the letter box.
There’s not a whole lot you can say about a darts video game, so in the interest of not repeating ourselves when we review the game next month we’re going to keep this focussed on what it’s like to throw darts in the Wii version – undoubtedly the game that will get most attention because you can sort of hold the Wii Remote as if it is a dart. It’s not a dart, but that’s something we’ll come to later.
Initially what’s most obvious though is a general improvement in presentation, with everything from the menus through to the player models being a big improvement over last year’s game. This isn’t to say that it’s now a visual marvel, but compared to what was a pretty ugly virtual representation, the difference here is quite obvious. Anyway, onto the more important issue: how do you throw the darts?
As the game points out, the idea is to hold the Wii Remote like it’s a dart, with your hand grasping it in a way so the pointer remains directed at the screen while your forearm moves back and forth. A finger also has to be able to press and release the A or B buttons, with this governing when your throw action ends. The Wii Remote pointer is used to aim, with your aiming reticule being locked in place when you hold down either of those two buttons. This is actually easier said than done, and isn’t helped by the default view that shows the board on the left and the player on the right.
At the moment this aiming feels incredibly twitchy, at least at first. Due to the way you’re holding the Wii Remote your aim isn’t as steady as it usually is and the simple fact that most people’s TVs are positioned much lower than a dartboard doesn’t help either. These are issues that are initially incredibly frustrating, but before too long I’d managed to steady my hand and started to get into a groove. Throwing the dart is a skill that will take time to master. You need to have a steady follow through, a perfectly timed release and good speed. It’s also completely pointless to be great at hitting the treble 20, but miss the vital double checkout nine times out of ten.
Despite early problems with the aiming there’s no denying that the dart throwing action has been implemented very well here. After about 30 minutes we’d managed to hit a 180 and had begun to work our way around the training board (complete with smaller doubles and trebles in order to improve your game). The final game will feature numerous game modes, covering your basic tournament and exhibition gameplay and party games too.
Make no mistake, PDC World Championship Darts 2009 isn’t going to set the sports genre on fire on its release in May, and it’s likely to appeal largely to the same group of people that bought last year’s game. Having said that, there does appear to have been a solid effort to make this the best version yet, which is about all we can ask for really – apart from a special edition complete with one of those models and a pint of lager.
